North Jersey Chicken Wings and More

North Jersey Chicken Wings and More

I took a short drive (34 minutes according to my GPS) to Buffalo's Chicken Shack in Wood-Ridge for lunch last week, acting on a tip from CC in NJ (actually her son) on a prior thread I can't seem to find right now.

What's with New Jersey and hyphenated town names anyway??

Simple storefront operation with maybe 6 tables inside, very clean looking, run by a husband-wife (I think) team. Man, there were dam good wings! I'd say in the Top 5 wings I have had in NJ. I got an order of 12 garlic very large parmesan wings, fries and a soda, which came to about $16. The food was cooked to order, but the wait was only about 10 minutes. I ate about 6 of the wings and a few of the fries. I would go back, and I wish it were closer. I also hope they stay in business. I was there at about 12:30 on a Thursday and was the only customer the whole time, except one lady came in to pick up an order just as I was leaving.

Stop Two: Never being content to just go to one place if I am out for the day, I took a drive about 15 minutes further north to the Korean Chicken Joint, Peck Peck Chicken, in Teaneck. I don't think they have a website, but here's what Yelp has to say:

I called ahead and ordered a dozen soy-garlic wings and an order of thier steak fries. Ready when I got there. It's a really bare bones mostly take out operation, just a couple of cramped tables, so I took my order to nearby Overpeck Park (very nice for a walk after). If I hadn't already had those terrrific wings from Buffalo's, I would have given Peck Pecks maybe a B+, but I was spoiled for the day, so I gave Peck Peck a B. They were very good, but not great. Thier fries, on the other hand, did beat Buffalo's, nice and crispy and seemed to be fresly cut (not sure about Buffalo's). I also got a side cup of something called Boku sauce, which was well, different, very soy-ish when I dipped a couple of fries.

OK, Stop Three (not chicken related):

Never being content to make just two stops when I'm out for a food day, I made a stop more-or-less on the way home at Clemente's Bakey in South Hackensack. I had not been there for over 10 years, and since then it has gone from a small bakery that specializes in Foccaccia (the best in NJ IMHO), to a full scale take out/eat in tratorria/deli. The foccacia now seems to be an afterthought, but I was able to snag the last two, at about 1:30. Still the best in NJ, I forgot how really good these are. I believe they also supply the foccaccia to some other del's and supermarkets in North Jersey (I've seen them at Corrado's, but not every time).